Living in the middle of nowhere.

by Veronica on August 20, 2010

in Animals, Blogging, Life

Except for the busy fuck-off highway running along my front fence, I live in the middle of nowhere.

It’s great for a few reasons, lots of space, very little pollution, farmland all around. I get to watch the sheep and lambs in spring and the cows are constantly chewing my hose fittings on the communal farm pipe off and breaking them.

It means we can plant trees without worrying about how big they’ll grow and we can have animals on the property without anyone saying anything. Ducks? Sure! Let’s get ducks! And chooks while we’re at it. And a rooster to crow and wake us up.

Rooster, chooks and ducks having breakfast.

It also means that an impromptu duck singalong doesn’t bother anyone. Except the chooks.

Duck Singalong

I get spectacular sunsets and sunrises, because I can actually see the hills surrounding my property..

Sunrise.

Sunset.

Of course, living in the middle of nowhere means that I am extra careful about my internet privacy. When you live in a suburb with only 6 houses in the main stretch, you can’t afford to let anyone know where you are. It’s not like being able to say I live in Hobart and knowing that so do 10,000 other people. Unfortunate.

I get to make up for it with views like this from my mailbox.

Winter has been horribly dry, as you can tell. We’re slowly getting some rain now and it’s amazing how fast things start to green up.

I’m hoping for a wet spring, because extra water is never bad.

These aren’t my paddocks by the way. These are the ones that have had the irrigators running, watering them all winter. Stupid weather when you spend all winter watering the paddocks so the stock can eat.

Of course, when you live in the middle of nowhere, sometimes your animals get confused about where they should be laying their eggs.

This duck for example, is sitting on the side of the road. Sure, she’s under my hedge, but on the wrong side of the freaking fence. When she discovered I was stealing her eggs from this nest, she started laying under the pine tree, next to the post box. Again – outside of my property. She’s come right now (I think) and she appears to be laying in the nesting boxes. Of course, I might be entirely wrong and she might appear in a few months, bringing ducklings from MILES away.

You just never know.

There are downsides of course, the closest supermarket is 30 minutes drive away and most of our shopping is done 45 minutes from here. All our hospital appointments require an hour of driving to reach and if we ever get pregnant with a 3rd baby, we likely won’t make it to the hospital on time. Also, an ambulance takes 20 minutes to get here, on a good day.

And it means the neighbours (the one further away, luckily) have roaring parties and rev their cars at god awful hours. But hey, we’d get that in the suburbs too.

All round, it’s pretty lovely living so far out.

Megan August 20, 2010 at 5:18 am

Were I live use to be the middle of nowhere but in the last ten years they have decided to build stuff around us like neighboor hoods and gas stations, and fast food resturants and other types of stores. So now we no longer live in the middle of nowhere yet we never moved. 🙁

Marylin August 20, 2010 at 6:39 am

Oh it’s so pretty! I love living closer to the country. We’re still in a wee town (about 6k population last time I checked) so it’s not so quiet that I would get lonely, which is a big thing for me, but small enough that it’s not overwhelming. 🙂

taz August 20, 2010 at 7:23 am

looks so beautiful and peaceful

Fiona August 20, 2010 at 7:41 am

It looks gorgeous. If services were closer, it wouldn’t be the same…. if only they were just over the hill! (out of sight but still there)

Jo-anne August 20, 2010 at 10:56 am

Wow it does look awfully dry where you are but it certainly looks very pretty. I hope you get some more rain 🙂

sharon August 20, 2010 at 12:25 pm

Oh wow, that is very dry for this time of the year. Our winter has been much colder and drier than usual too but we have had a reasonable amount of rain recently and it is pretty green now. The local small dams are still very low though so, no doubt, those who depend on them need a lot more wet stuff. Me, being a tad selfish, I’m not quite so keen 😉 Now if it fell gently overnight and stayed dry during the day it would be wonderful. As it is, more often than not, it tends to be torrential showers during the day and then a clear, bloody freezing night to follow! Anyone got an ‘in’ with the rain gods?

river August 20, 2010 at 2:30 pm

It’s been raining here every day for week, not continously, but yes, every day. So hopefully you should see some of that coming your way. Your area does look like a lovely place to live. If it wasn’t for the winter freezes I’d be down there looking for a cheap rental. Well, cheaper than what I’m paying now anyway. As it is, I’ll have to look around my own state. Only because if I don’t get back to work after my surgery, I won’t be able to afford my lovely little unit. Maybe. I love your wily duck, I’d say one way or another she’s determined to raise some babies.
@sharon, I can’t say I have an “in” with the rain gods, but 9 times out of 10 it will stop raining when I need to walk to work or shops, then stop again when I’m ready to walk home. I’m lucky that way.

Missy Boo August 20, 2010 at 11:51 pm

Sounds perfect – looks even more perfect 🙂

Marie August 21, 2010 at 12:17 am

Gorgeous.

Susan August 21, 2010 at 1:54 am

Pretty pics 🙂 i think I might enjoy living far from people- mostly cause they can be annoying. Silence is golden
Thanks for visiting my blog

EmmaK August 21, 2010 at 3:47 am

It looks pretty amazing. Every time I visit the countryside like i recently visited my inlaws in rural ireland who have chooks – I think hmm how quiet I could get used to this. But something always brings me back to the cut and thrust of stinky city living must be in my DNA or summat

Kristy August 21, 2010 at 6:58 am

Wow. Beautiful! And also beautiful to be grateful for all you have around you. I can’t wait – someday soon we are planning on moving to be on more land.

Watershedd August 21, 2010 at 11:42 am

Mmmm. I like. the GOFA likes. Perhaps ina few years.

minut'd'automne August 22, 2010 at 5:45 am

It does look very lovely! great sunset picture!

Deb August 22, 2010 at 7:44 pm

We live in the middle of nowhere too, but in central Australia so it looks very different! I love it, it will be really hard when the girls get closer to highschool and we have to move.

Barbara August 23, 2010 at 11:16 pm

In the middle of nowhere, do you have a spare room? I think I’d like to come and live with you!

blue milk September 2, 2010 at 2:55 pm

I am totally envious of your place. I drive by those sorts of houses and wonder what it would be like to live there, wonder if the people living there know how lovely their little place in the world is.. turns out the answer is yes.

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